Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

We say: The Catholic Church in the U.S. is for sale. Money provides individuals and groups entrée to the highest levels of church leadership and affords others an inordinately large say in church affairs.

After less than two decades on the air, EWTN claimed $49 million in assets and annual income from contributions of $19 million. Today, the financial support of its weathliest contributors correlates with the pro-Republican and anti-Francis editorial direction of the network's programming and news coverage.

The organization that promotes traditionalist Catholicism announced that the Napa Legal Institute will help connect healthcare and education nonprofits with "Catholic lawyers who can provide legal counsel on corporate, tax and other non-litigation matters."

The Herald is the newest player in a web of connections between conservative Catholic media and wealthy donors, right-wing activists, high-ranking clergy and libertarian political players.

Distinctly Catholic: In two weeks, the U.S. bishops gather in Baltimore. They must confront their own accountability amid the sex abuse crisis, and their loyalty to Pope Francis. Are the bishops up to it?

A federal court heard oral arguments this week on whether a longstanding housing tax break for clergy called a "parsonage allowance exclusion" is constitutional, setting the stage for a clash over competing claims of religious privilege and religious discrimination.

Humanae Vitae at 50: Those who believe that that church's ban on artificial contraceptives does not matter need to hear this wake-up call: Untold numbers of women and children have died, will die and are dying right now as a direct consequence of Humanae Vitae.